Hartford Shooting Victim's Mother: 'Everybody Loved Carrell'

John Woike

Lillian Lee, right, joins hands with Pastor Milton Boyd, left, and Eugene Monroe as they say a prayer for Lillian's son Carrell Lee, 58, of Bloomfield was shot as many as five times in the torso after closing his liquor store on Albany Avenue Wednesday night.

Lillian Lee, right, joins hands with Pastor Milton Boyd, left, and Eugene Monroe as they say a prayer for Lillian's son Carrell Lee, 58, of Bloomfield was shot as many as five times in the torso after closing his liquor store on Albany Avenue Wednesday night. (John Woike)

Man was shot multiple times Wednesday night as he closed up the family business in Hartford

HARTFORD — Lillian Lee and her son decided to lock up the Oakland Package Store a little early Wednesday night because business had been slow, she said Thursday.

For nearly a half-century, the Lee family has owned and operated the liquor store at Albany Avenue and Oakland Terrace without "any trouble," she said. So when gunshots erupted behind the shop just past 8 p.m., as 58-year-old Carrell Lee was getting ready to leave with his mother, it sounded more like a nuisance.

"I thought it was a firecracker, that somebody was playing a joke," Lillian Lee said. "But when I turned around, I saw Carrell stretched out on the floor, on the ground, and he kept saying, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe.'"

Police said that Carrell Lee was approached from behind and shot "multiple times" with a handgun that has not been found. His gold chain was snatched and the suspect, described as a Hispanic male, fled south on Oakland Terrace.

"He lost so much blood," said Lillian Lee, standing behind the store counter Thursday as her son emerged from surgery at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. She was told that Carrell had been shot as many as five times; she believes that he was the victim of an "ambush."

Courtesy of James Covington III

Carrell Lee, 58, of Bloomfield was shot as many as five times in the torso while closing his liquor store, according to police. This photo provided by Carrell's good friend James Covington III shows Lee wearing the gold necklace and cross his mother thinks was the reason for the robbery and shooting.

Carrell Lee, 58, of Bloomfield was shot as many as five times in the torso while closing his liquor store, according to police. This photo provided by Carrell's good friend James Covington III shows Lee wearing the gold necklace and cross his mother thinks was the reason for the robbery and shooting. (Courtesy of James Covington III)

Raised in Hartford, Carrell Lee attended Catholic schools and had been living in Virginia Beach, Va., when he returned to Connecticut about a year and a half ago to help run the family business that opened in 1968, his mother said. The family has also been trying to sell the store.

Lillian's husband, Everett Lee, is 82 and "can't do too much work now because he got bad knees and he can't work like he used to," she said. Carrell "came up here to help his father."

Carrell, who has a son in the Air Force, had been planning a return to Virginia, Lillian Lee said. And in the near future, the New England Patriots fan was looking forward to watching the Super Bowl. "He was so excited about that," she said.

Christine Dempsey / Hartford Courant

A store owner was shot outside this package store in Hartford on Jan. 21.

On Thursday morning, as Carrell's wife and others awaited news at St. Francis, Lillian Lee reported to work with her red blazer and worn buttons advising customers to show their ID. The phone rang often and she answered every call with a soft voice: "Oakland Liquor."

"I've been getting so many phone calls, I don't know what to do," she said. "Everybody loved Carrell. Everybody. And in Virginia, if they hear this, they might be here tomorrow."

A trickle of customers arrived, including one woman in a brown hat and mink coat who sounded surprised to hear about Wednesday night's shooting. A few friends, solemn, kept company in the shop.

"We go back a lot of years — he's a good man," said Charles Blanks, 57, a West Hartford resident who has known Carrell since childhood. "We all grew up with a really good life; we had good parents. ... Let's put it this way: We weren't no 'street.' We went to really good schools. We worked. That was the life, you know. He's a good man."

But it seems like times have changed, Blanks said. "It ain't like it used to be. They're hungry. Of course, they were trying to rob him, dear. ... It's sad we're like that."

Lillian Lee said that her son's long gold chain had a cross.

"It was a beautiful chain," she said. "I keep telling my son, 'Don't wear those chains because people like them. If they want them, you know, they'll taken them.'"

Since the shooting, Lillian Lee said she has been touched by kindness. At the hospital Wednesday night, she recounted, several Hispanic people who happened to be in the waiting room circled around her, held hands "and said the most beautiful prayer you ever heard."

Hartford police's Major Crimes Division and Shooting Task Force are investigating the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police.